Heavy rainfall associated with Tropical Storm Debby blamed for incident reported to FDEP
This week, as a result of the heavy rains associated with Tropical Storm Debby, approximately 350,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into an unused, reclaimed water pond located on Haligan Way in Englewood, the Englewood Water District reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
About 300,000 gallons of the effluent was recovered, the report pointed out.
The incident began about 3 p.m. on Aug. 5, the District told FDEP; the spill was not resolved until about midnight that day, the report added.
The site was the District’s Holiday Ventures lift station, just off Haligan Way, the report said. That property originally was home to a water reclamation facility (WRF) — otherwise known as a wastewater treatment plant — as noted in the District report to FDEP.
“The plant was decommissioned and demolished years ago and the lift station was put in its place,” the report explained. “The pond remains, though it is usually dry,” the report noted. The sewage from the lift station “overflowed into the old pond and did not flow anyplace else” On Aug. 5, the report pointed out. “The lift station continued to operate but could not keep up with the flows.”
Sarasota County Water Atlas data showed that, just before 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 6, the seven-day rainfall total for Englewood was 6.65 inches, as a result of Tropical Storm Debby’s effects on the county.
“No state or public waterways were affected by this spill,” the District report added. “The spilled wastewater was pumped out of the pond and returned to the lift station when flows from the [tropical storm] dropped to the point the lift station could handle the flow,” the report explained. “The pond area was disinfected with lime,” it added.
David Larson, the District’s wastewater operations manager, provided the information to FDEP, the report noted.